Ha ha ha - oh **** (bhg)

[chrisc]

So, following my recent saga with the whole carb problem. I had another go at the carb today and got it running properly :D - the pivot attached to the float was slightly bent allowing fuel to flow in continuosly. So, grinning at my success i ran it around the block for a test. Seems fine, running very smooth, slightly hesitant - but then I hadnt adjusted the throttle linkage since I put the carb back on the second time.

Pulled onto the duel carriageway on my way home, started to accelerate and splish. A huge cloud of white smoke out the exhaust. I figured if I stopped on the duel carriageway some muppet would just hit the car or I would get hit getting out of the car so nursed it about 200m to the next turn off (thankfully my road). Bonnet open and it looks like the head gasket has blown just by where the supercharger is bracketed to the head - theres a nice bit of (brand new :evil: ) oil there, on the back (related to car not supercharger) of the supercharger, and there is oil that has dripped down on to the oil filter and the alternator.

So ive left the car there and decided to walk home - ill return later with a pushing team.

[Hamish]

Oh bravo uniform golf golf echo romeo :evil:
Feel for you mate :!: Having had all the bad luck it's possible to be inflicted with - haven't I :?: - by a VX I know exactly how you feel.
Never mind.... gives you an excuse to go for a 'trick' rebuild :wink:
Be assured, my thoughts are with you :roll:

[chrisc]

Yes indeedy! what I really need is for the silver car to be sold. Then I could sort the bodywork on the black one and have change left over for some good fun headwork. There must be a 16v head that can go on these cars without too much hard work :)

All suggestions for trick head work gratefully recieved.

[Hamish]

Thoughts about 16 valve heads and Betas have been mentioned here before :wink:
sadly - unless you're really incredibly lucky :!: - it's not a simple aquisition. Sure, 16V Thema Turbo pistons will fit into the Beta block (plenty of 8V Thema psitons have been used in rebuilding VX engines) but the head choice is limited to the 'early' non reversed type head - say a 131 16v Abarth..... and they are like hens teeth :roll:
On top of that you'd have to modify the cam boxes to accommodate the 'canted' nature of the VX engine.... so it's a bit of a non-starter without big bucks :evil:

[chrisc]

Sigh. well, I suppose i knew that already. Ill put it in my future must do projects (along with a gt40 replica, an xj13 replica with a proper quad cam v12 in it and a 70s marcos). Though the marcos may not be that far away - give me a year or two :)

[Shant Fabricatorian]

Nothing much to say except commiserations! Tough break. Still, potential for improvement lies ahead.

Big bucks for the 16V head indeed. I recall a figure of 6000 euros being mentioned, either here or having heard it from somewhere else...either way, it's frightening. And even if you do have the cash, it's hardly the work of a moment to find one.

[chrisc]

Well, I was going to perform a compression test this afternoon to confirm / deny head gasket. I got about 2 spins out of the starter before the battery died! On the plus side, it does have compression on the cylinder closest to the oil (#1).

After lengthy discussion with Hamish, he felt it could just be oil coming out of the crankcase breather - and the signs so far do match that - the airbox is nicely rustproofed inside (with oil), and the small hose connection to the vapor extraction pump on the underside of the airbox was not actually connected - and it happens to point pretty much directly at where ive got oil showing at the moment.... spark plug for #1 was oil fouled, only other one ive pulled so far is #4 which is err. looking a bit carbon fouled :)

In the meantime ive been (with encouragement from Hamish again!) dreaming up plans for what I could do if it is the head gasket. So, if it is then the car will be getting a light port and polish, a fiat 130 inlet cam, a csc exhaust manifold and a weber 40 dcnf. If it isnt then I will settle for the dcnf and probably the csc manifold. For the moment :)

[DJ]

In the meantime ive been (with encouragement from Hamish again!) dreaming up plans for what I could do if it is the head gasket. So, if it is then the car will be getting a light port and polish, a fiat 130 inlet cam, a csc exhaust manifold and a weber 40 dcnf. If it isnt then I will settle for the dcnf and probably the csc manifold. For the moment :)

Or you could just ship the whole sorry mess to my house for installation into the 77 Beta Coupe that I've recently acquired. :twisted:

[chrisc]

Hi,
well, compression test has been surprisingly unclear. here we are :

Starting from the cambelt end

#1 - 175 psi
#2 - 175 psi
#3 - 162 psi
#4 - 165 psi

I thought that variations inside 10% were acceptable, so either - this is ok. Or theres a problem around 3 and 4. Going to perform a leakdown test on these cylinders and see what that has to say.

[chrisc]

Well, here are the leakdown test results!

#1 - 175psi
#2 - 175psi
#3 - 175psi
#4 - 172psi

So, I think we can say that my head gasket is ok! but sadly looks like the rings on 3 and 4 are a bit worn. Theres begger all chance of me getting in there to fix that right now so I shall have to live with it.

So on to a new topic - how can carburettor settings cause excessive crankcase pressure (concluding that this oil has been blown out the breather, and the only thing I have changed recently is the carb settings).